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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

A Visit from the Quilt Fairy

My friend scored this quilt top years ago at a garage sale with plans to finish it. It's hard enough as a quilter to finish your own projects, never mind picking up someone else's unfinished top as a non-quilter and making it into a usable quilt. She finally decided to take it off her To Do list, by giving the quilt top to me. Hooray!

It measures 84"x68" which means it could make a home on a full size bed, I suppose. The fabrics are not soft, and they're not very tightly woven. Some of them are really charming, though.

The cowboys and the yellow paisley prints are lots of fun. I don't know that the sashing fabric would have been my first choice for a quilt top that required so much work, but it is well pieced.

And all pieced by hand. Shazam. Very impressive. I've never made a block with eight intersecting points.

I guess I have to put that on my To Do list, right along with finishing this quilt top. It's definitely been waiting long enough.

Have you ever taken a vintage quilt top and turned it into a finished quilt? Would it be wrong (or a waste of time) to take the blocks out and sash it with something cuter? The fabric in the blocks is still scratchy. I'd love to know what you think!

4 comments:

Score!!! My sister and I inherited two sets of blocks for different quilts in my grandmother's things. One set was appliqued butterflies and anther is... I can't remember but, it was done in peaches and blues... blech. We don't think that either one was something she started, we think she got them at a garage sale or friend. We bought fabrics to finish them and then never did, and now they are in a storage shed. We've kept them because my Grandma had them, and for no other reason. This is what I think: If you want to use it, look at it, gift it, etc., you should turn it into something that you like, otherwise you might not finish it at all. The blocks are the feature, and I don't think taking out the sashing strips is a big deal at all. You have to like the finished project and give it a touch of "YOU" too. If it was something a family member did, or if it was sentimental, why then I would leave it. Because, it was in a garage sale, I'm doubting that. Go for it! And that is my two cents, dahling. Janelle

EEP! Personally, I love it the way it is. But replacing the smashing could definitely kick it up a notch, for sure. The fabrics might be crunchy if the original piecer was starching as she worked. Even if that isn't it I bet it will soften up after washing!